


These Old Bones

by AB Silvera (Meenah_Fishes)



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 07:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9873263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meenah_Fishes/pseuds/AB%20Silvera
Summary: The Enterprise is called to assist a remote Federation colony in its terraforming efforts, despite decades of isolationism. Upon arrival, the Enterprise learns the hindrance to said efforts is a declining birthrate in the colony, causing a dearth of able workers, as well as problems with the ruins of an ancient civilisation. Back on the Enterprise, Geordi La Forge needs to have the ship's systems operating at top capacity, but he encounters seemingly random failures which, nevertheless, look like the handiwork of his own engineers.





	

   As the Enterprise swam through the starfields at speeds almost unimaginable, Captain Picard switched on the desk console on his Ready Room. He put down his cup of tea (Earl Gray, mildly lukewarm), and relaxedly spoke.

   “Captain’s Log. Stardate: 46603.2. We are approaching Ambrik VII, site of a remote Federation colony. Their terraforming efforts have come to a halt due to a lack of personnel and resources, and the Enterprise has been dispatched to assist them.”

   He clicked the button to stop the recording. Fairly routine, he thought. Assisting outlying colonies wasn’t something that necessitated a ship such as the Enterprise, but as it was frequently the case, the Federation’s flagship was used both as a tool and as a symbol. As a tool, of course, the Galaxy-class vessel could handily take on any mission it was assigned to thanks to its versatile design, top-of-the-line system and massive, diverse crew. But as a symbol, the Enterprise effectively _was_ the Federation. Away from the homeworlds of its component races such as Sauria, Betazed or Vulcan, the Enterprise epitomized everything the Federation stood for: freedom, co-operation and peace. In this case, the confluence of a number of factors called for its deployment. Their relative proximity helped, but mostly it was the Enterprise’s capability to carry a number of personnel and masses of resources which were required.  
   A small frown formed in the Captain’s face. Personnel. The request had been quite clear, and he had read it himself. Ambrik was a very distant colony, possibly one of the most isolated spots in the entire Federation, founded around 70 years ago. In that amount of time, the natural population growth should’ve compensated for the relatively small cadre of settlers who arrived there. He had also looked at the files the Federation had on the colonists. There was little regarding the present population aside from the colony’s ruling council. While Ambrik was within the Federation’s borders, the reality was that its inhabitants were isolationists.

   The original leader of the settlement mission, Alina Monroe, felt the Federation had run afoul of its own principles in becoming a galactic power, and sought to form a small, contained utopia which would be a “beacon of light in the shadows”. That she would so quickly judge the Federation’s multitude of cultures and governments was shocking to Picard, but he had to admit there were aspects of the critique that stood up to scrutiny. The Federation had frequently acted as ‘Galactic Police’ with its neighbours, and had, in fact, engaged in war. They had done so ‘fairly’, so they thought, with minimal brutality, but such concepts were little solace to those caught in the middle of interstellar power struggles. One need only look at the ongoing situation in the Cardassian demilitarized zone. Picard sighed. He wished the world was as simple as lofty ideals made one feel.

   Clearing his mind of these thoughts, Picard stood up and focused himself. He did this by pulling down on his creased uniform and standing up straight, which he did behind closed doors. The Captain must project authority and strength at all times, he often thought. Doctor Crusher told him his back strain was a direct consequence of this line of thinking. Nevertheless he strode out of his ready room and into the main bridge, as he had felt the Enterprise drop out of warp.

* * *

“The Captain will have my head!”

   So cried Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, somewhere in the anthill-like maze of crawlways and crossroads that made up the Jefferies network. His voice echoed for at least half a level, reaching an engineer that was working on a nearby subjunction. It had reached the ears of the engineers standing right next to him much, much faster. Ensign Rodriguez and Lieutenant Szabó looked at each other, worryingly. Rodriguez arched an eyebrow towards her commanding officer. Szabó gave her a wry smile and, silently, pointed at the two pips on his collar. She squinted at him, and with an almost-too-cheery attitude asked La Forge what the matter was. It wasn’t that the Enterprise’s chief engineer was particularly angry or brutal, but he was hard to deal with when he felt particularly stressed out. The multiple power and computer failures in this section had been an irritant for weeks, and La Forge’s patience was at breaking point.

   “I’ll tell you what’s wrong! An entire section of the Jefferies tubes keeps… sort of... “ he winced, and raising the volume of his voice, he continued “...UNfixing itself! It’s as if someone’s breaking it on purpose!” La Forge looked at Szabó. “This isn’t another of Ivrek’s badly-planned pranks, is it?”

   Tamás Szabó put his hands up. His boyfriend’s scientific study of humour had led him down the path of attempting practical jokes on the crew. Lacking an understanding of boundaries relating to this very human practice, the Vulcan had occasionally gone too far and earned an official reprimand. Ivrek had toned things down since, but Szabó was still enduring these bad pranks in his personal life. Still, he shook his head and said “No sir! He’s learned his lesson!”

   Geordi scratched the back of his neck as he let out an exasperated sigh. “Okay. We’ve just reached Ambrik VII, and they’re in need of an energy transfer, so we need the Jefferies network operating at complete capacity. Rodriguez, go back to Main Engineering and run a comprehensive level 4 scan in the entire drive section.” He could see her starting to complain and held up his hand. “Yes, I know that’s going to take hours and will be boring but I need to figure out what the hell is going wrong. Tamás, I’m giving you command of Engineering and co-ordinating our efforts with the surface, I need to get to the bottom of this myself.” His two engineers nodded and departed the junction in separate directions. La Forge packed away his tools and opened the compartment door directly above him. He climbed up one section and scanned it. Nothing. Everything operating properly. He climbed up another, same result. Except, suddenly, it failed, then re-established itself. Dammit. This was going to be a long day.

   He crawled out of the tube and into another junction, stretching his arms and legs, and then sat down to think. It made no sense that the Enterprise was malfunctioning in this manner. This made him think of his call with Chief O’Brien last week. His old friend was slowly getting used to life in the former Cardassian station, but a combination of different design philosophies and intentional sabotage during the end of the occupation had left the starbase a mess that demanded the best improvisation skills of its current crew of engineers. But this wasn’t Deep Space Nine, this was a top-of-the-line Galaxy-Class ship which underwent routine maintenance and parts replacement. In fact, the entire drive section had been inspected at Starbase 678 only three weeks ago!

   As he sat quietly, a loud thud came from above him. Geordi squinted. There wasn’t anyone scheduled for work in this area, he had made sure of that so he could lead the work and find out what the major fault was. He attempted to open the overhead door to progress. The panel beeped in acknowledgment of the command, and presented the appropriate visual feedback to the door opening. Except the door refused to open. A quick tricorder scan revealed the door was functioning fine, but its command pathways had been rerouted. He was certain he heard a knock, and the doors were not soundproof. He banged on it with his case.

   “Hello? Is anyone there?”

   He knocked again.

   “Hello? Is anyone--”

   “STAY BACK!” came a scream from within the tube.

   “Who’s there?” asked La Forge.

   “Stay back or I will shoot myself!”

 

* * *

 

   You open your eyes. Blue space gases drift towards you as you are engulfed by the light of a remote star. The light fades, and you find yourself afloat, in the midst of our solar system. Planets dance by with a curtain of stars as its backdrop.

_Space. The final frontier._

   Like a majestic sea creature, the USS Enterprise comes into view. Its gentle, organic curves belie innards replete with peoples of a hundred worlds and technology from a hundred more.

_These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds. To seek out new life, and new civilizations… to boldly go where no one has gone before._

   The twin nacelles of the Enterprise light up, and just as quickly its shape twists towards eternity, and is gone in another dazzling flash of light.

   You see titanic blue letters crisscrossing the starry skies. They read STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Seemingly out of nowhere, an orchestral score goes into crescendo, playing in time with the Enterprise sailing past you at top speed, presenting the names of actors portraying the members of the starship’s crew.

   It’s over very fast, with the final name, RODDENBERRY, fading out as the Enterprise enters warp again, and the orchestral accompaniment draws to a close.

   Your eyes close again. Before you awaken from your dream, you see, behind your eyelids, in big blue letters, the title of this piece:

   "These Old Bones"


End file.
